Blog Tour: Easy Peasy by Ky Garvey

Title: Easy Peasy

Author: Ky Garvey

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: EK Kids

Published: 1^st February 2023

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 32

Price: $24.99

Synopsis:  Easy Peasy follows Ruby, who has a brand-new pair of roller skates. Ruby is sure skating will be easy, but after a few tumbles she realizes she may need her dad’s help after all. Embracing themes of independence, perseverance, and family relationships, this is a fun, engaging story for children learning how to do something for the first time. Categories: Adventure, Ages 4-8, Amy Calautti, EK Books, Family, Future Releases 2023, Humour, Ky Garvey Tags: asking for help, children’s, family-relationships, father and daughter, father figure, independence, learning new things, male role model, parent–child relationship, perseverance, roller skates, roller skating, roller-skating girl

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Ruby is excited when she gets a shiny pair of red roller skates as a present, and she thinks it will be easy to do, and at first refuses help from her dad, who wants to teach her to skate. Ruby takes a few tumbles as she tries to skate on her own, she admits that it is too hard, and lets her dad teach her to skate – but what surprises does dad have up his sleeve to help her?

Ruby’s determination to work out how to skate on her own reflects the challenges young kids face when they are trying new things. Ruby’s story is one that many parents and children will face – because young children are often keen and eager to do things on their own, because they think they can, or they don’t want people to think that they can’t. Easy Peasy is a great book to show children that it is okay to ask for help if they need it. Like anyone, kids will want to do things themselves. Yet books like this remind us that we all need help sometimes – however old we are. It assures us that it is also okay to fail, and fall down when we try, because that is how we learn anything we do. Through trying, learning from someone, and keeping at it.

The other great thing about this book is that it allows Ruby to step outside what people expect to see for girls in books. There’s not a lot of pink and dolls, but red roller skates, and a celebration of girls being interested in something other than dolls and tea parties, or even as well as these things. It is an empowering book to show girls that they can have different interests to what society impresses upon them, and that they can be brave. I liked that Ruby was able to be who she as and be a little bit stubborn. Yet she knew when to ask for help. I also found the father-daughter relationship to be lovely. It showed that there are many relationships in families that need to be celebrated and acknowledged, and this book shows that each relationship is important and the father-daughter relationship in this book is so delightful. It shows an encouraging father who wants to help his daughter learn to skate, and the innovative way he shows her what to do and builds her confidence.

The beauty in this book is the way the story works with the illustrations, which allow the characters to pop and be unique, and show the strength of having a male role model who can help you do things, but in the end, give you the independence that you need to move forward and gain more skills, even if it is just learning how to roller skate on your own through perseverance and determination. It is one of those books that has layers that will be appreciated by people in different ways, whether it is seeing a brave girl, or something you enjoy doing, or being able to relate to the father-daughter relationship. Or anything else that might come to mind for individual readers – that is the beauty of reading books. Everyone will get something different out of the same story. Readers may also enjoy looking for the roller skating duck who appears throughout, as well as the rainbows that make the story pop with life.

Ruby’s story is one that readers of all ages will enjoy, and I think it is one that can be used to show kids that they might not be able to do everything the first time, or that they will need help. I think this is a book that will have wide appeal for lots of readers.